


A Steamy Romance Novel: Thedas Edition

by n7chelle



Series: Shuffle the Deck, Deal Again [5]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, MMORPGs, Meet-Cute, No actual smut here sorry, Solas's guild was basically Debauchery Tea Party I guess, heavily inspired by world of warcraft, with a dash of Log Horizon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:13:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26972692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/n7chelle/pseuds/n7chelle
Summary: Solas hasn't played World of Thedas in over two years. Roiya is a new player with no idea what's she's doing.
Relationships: Female Lavellan/Solas
Series: Shuffle the Deck, Deal Again [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1415005
Kudos: 16





	A Steamy Romance Novel: Thedas Edition

**Author's Note:**

> I started this a few months ago as a way to get over writer's block (spoiler alert: it worked). Popped back into my head earlier this week and I felt like finishing it up. Hope you like!
> 
> The title is a reference to the [Steamy Romance Novels](https://wow.gamepedia.com/Steamy_Romance_Novel) from World of Warcraft.
> 
> Edit: I know I rated it M, but it's more for sexual implications than for things actually getting steamy on screen. So if that's what you're looking for here, sorry to disappoint. I'm not brave enough to post that just yet.

_Last logged in: 800 days._

Solas stared at his account on the World of Thedas website. Two years and change since his guild had disbanded. None of them knew each other in person, so after that last raid they'd all ported back to the hub for some virtual drinks before saying goodbye. One by one their names went grey and that was that. They'd all gone their separate ways.

He'd been at a used bookstore earlier that day when the TV behind the counter flipped to commercials. A familiar melody drew his attention away from the dusty history books and for a moment he was back in Thedas; crawling through dungeons, toppling high dragons, deciding the fate of the world. He stood there in the aisle, listening intently as the narrator wove a tale of a peace summit gone wrong, an ancient evil released from its prison, and the heroes who emerged from the ashes to lead Thedas to victory. 

It wasn't until the narrator rolled into their sales pitch for the new 'Wrath of Heaven' expansion that Solas realized he'd been hanging on every word, imagining his old character playing through what was sure to be an epic opening quest line in a brand new region.

He paid for his book and before he'd even hit the front door, pulled up the World of Thedas shop on his phone.

A progress bar was slowly filling on Solas' screen. He had at least another thirty minutes before the game would be playable, and he had a lot to catch up on. Two more expansions had come out in the meantime, and the world had changed dramatically both in game and in terms of gameplay. Old classes had been revamped or removed, new classes added. Several classic regions of the world map had received full overhauls to bring them up to date with the improved graphics of later expansions; Character models had also been improved significantly.

He skimmed the extensive patch notes on more realistic hair physics with a bemused expression, smoothing a hand over the bare curve of his own head. It would make a difference to him, his character didn't have hair either. 

Finally the bar turned green, and the game launched automatically. Solas sat back to enjoy the new cinematic. 

_Last logged in: just now._

* * *

"Cas? Wait, where did you go?" 

"Follow the purple marker on your compass," Cassandra crackled in her ear.

Roiya's gaze darted around the screen, searching and failing to find anything that looked like a compass, much less any kind of purple indicator. 

"I don't see anything," she admitted, feeling more than a little stupid. It's just a game, she told herself, no need to get worked up. But Cassandra and a bunch of her friends had been paying for years, and Roiya had finally gotten curious enough about this World of Thedas thing to pick up a copy of the starter edition when it went on sale. Cassandra had gifted her the newest expansion and a few months of game time, and offered to run her through some early levels to help her get started. 

Whatever Cassandra responded with dissolved into unintelligible static. Her old headset was dying for sure, and the earcups were _not_ elf-friendly, reminding her why she normally stuck to earbuds. She'd only had them on for ten minutes and already she could feel the squeeze starting to sting. But unfortunately, they were the only ones she had with a built in microphone. 

**_RIFT EVENT JOINED!_** The game announced in a bright, glowing text notification that flashed across her screen. When it disappeared, Roiya found herself locked into a cutscene that showed a portal opening and tons of enemies pouring out. 

Probably not a good sign. 

"Um….Cas? I think I went somewhere I'm not supposed to be… Something about a 'rift'?" 

"Oh, that is the new world event for this region!" 

"Great," Roiya said brightly. That told her exactly nothing of usefulness. "What am I supposed to do about it?" 

"There will be three waves of enemies before you can close the rift. Try to stay alive until I reach you."

Stay alive. Right. She'd barely mastered running in the right direction, now she was supposed to fight on her own? 

The cutscene ended and dropped her back in the game, where there were enemies scattered around her character. The closest one's started attacking her right away, and Roiya fumbled with her mouse and keyboard, trying to remember the buttons for movement and clicking rapidly on the icons at the bottom of the screen at the same time. 

Her character moved pretty slow going backwards, but she couldn't figure out how to turn around, so she just kept running in circles backwards, hacking away at enemies with flashy swings of her greatsword. It actually looked pretty cool, but none of the enemies seemed to be dying for some reason.

"Any time now Cas," Roiya said, when she'd been running in circles for a few minutes with no progress, and no sign of Cassandra's character anywhere. 

"Sorry, I triggered another rift. Just keep up whatever you are doing, I will be there soon." 

"Okay then," Roiya shrugged. "Oh I think I killed something!" Her screen flashed and the enemy that had been following her exploded in a burst of blue light. "How did I…?" she trailed off, just as another player that definitely wasn't Cassandra ran by her and started carving their way through the enemies. 

Okay, now _this_ person clearly knew what they were doing. Within seconds, every enemy had switched to attacking them, and a few seconds after that they'd taken them all out with some spinny staff moves and magic that were 1000% cooler than Roiya's slow-as-hell greatsword. 

**_NEXT WAVE INCOMING!_ ** Roiya's screen said, while she was busy wondering if she could switch classes to being a magic user instead. 

Wait, next wave? Oh, right, Cassandra. had said something about that. Roiya tapped at her movement keys idly, waiting for the new enemies to show up, and discovered that she could move diagonally if she held the back and sideways buttons down at the same time. Neat! Still nothing for turning around. But at least now she could run backwards and forwards in zigzags.

Her new friend took care of the next wave mostly without her help, and did the same with the third and final wave. 

**_RIFT SEALED!!_ **the game announced, with a surge of triumphant music. 

There was a little cutscene showing her character and her companion celebrating, and Roiya was able to get a pretty good look at the guy while the camera slowly panned around. His armor was shiny gold with a big fur sash over one shoulder, and the staff on his back had a bunch of sparkling tree roots on one end and a wicked-looking blade on the other. She couldn't see his face, only a pair of glowing blue eyes under a dark hood, which honestly just upped the cool factor even more.

Her character looked pretty shabby next to him, in the green and brown armor she'd started the game with, and a giant sword that was basically a grey rectangle on a stick. 

_First time playing WoT?_ a speech bubble said, over her companion's head. The character ID read _ <Fen'Harel, lvl.??> _

Roiya flailed with her keyboard for a second, not knowing how to respond. It was pure chance she hit the enter key, and a string of gibberish popped up over her character's head before she typed, _yeah, how could you tell ;P_

 _Lucky guess. ;)_ Fen'Harel did a laughing emote. _Would you like some assistance navigating this area? I'm new to this expansion, but my gear is significantly above the level for a starting region._

 _thx, but I'm playing with a friend already. she's around here somewhere_ , Roiya typed back. 

_No problem_ , Fen'Harel said, and his character gave a dramatic bow. _GLHF!_ he added, before he jogged away. Roiya watched him disappear across the snow, envious of his ability to turn around like a normal person. 

Aw, snap. She should've asked him which button did that!

* * *

Thedas welcomed Solas back like an old friend. 

Muscle memory for Fen'Harel's ability rotation kicked in the moment his fingers hit the keyboard, and a couple hours of rolling through low-level mobs was enough to acquaint him with the various gameplay changes and tweaks that had been made in his absence. 

He reached the new hub location of Tarasyl'an Te'las in next to no time. It was an isolated fortress city in the Frostback Peaks region, with two major districts split between underground caverns called the Undercroft, above ground structures labeled collectively as Skyhold. There weren't too many players wandering around just yet. He was still midway through the story quests, so his character was probably in a separate instance from the general population. 

Nothing could match the opulence of Val Royeaux, but Skyhold had a rustic, ethereal charm Solas could already see himself becoming fond of. He'd gathered from NPC dialogue and various references in quest text that the location obliterated in the opening seconds of Wrath of Heaven's intro cinematic, a place called the Temple of Sacred Ashes, had been the previous hub, and before that it had been a new city called Kirkwall. It would be interesting to visit Kirkwall, just to see what he'd missed. It couldn't possibly be more drab and boring than Denerim, at the very least. 

He was just thinking about logging off for the night when he saw a familiar username on the screen. Lavellan, a level 7 Dalish warrior, was idling by the front gate. 

_Hello again_ , he typed, summoning a chair to sit down. 

_Oh hey! You're the guy from earlier. Thanks for saving my bacon back there. I died like six times after you ran off XD_

_What happened to your friend?_

_She got me here and then had to go raid or something with her regular group. /shrug_

Lavellan's character affected a dramatic, disappointed sigh. 

_She taught me how to do emotes tho, lol_

_Congratulations_ , Fen'Harel clapped. 

_Is your offer to help me out still open?_ Lavellan asked. 

Solas glanced at the clock in the corner of his screen before answering. He still had a few hours before he was supposed to meet up with Dorian and Bull for dinner. Plenty of time to teach a newbie some of the basics. 

* * *

"Wait, wait, let me get this straight: this guy brought in a priceless family heirloom, that'd been sitting on his grandmother's mantle in full view for _decades_ , and you had to tell him it was—it was a—" 

"A three-centuries-old Orlesian sexual aid, yes." 

Lavellan's voice dissolved into breathy giggles in Solas's ears. He didn't bother to stop the grin that spread over his face at the sound; it wasn't as if she or anyone else could see. Her voice was melodious and pleasant even through the slightly fuzzy quality of WoT's built-in voice chat, and in just a few short hours it was quickly becoming his favorite sound in the world.

"Oh _fenedhis,_ I'm late!" Lavellan suddenly gasped. "I was supposed to meet some friends for dinner, like, half an hour ago."

Solas glanced at the time and was startled to find that he was running late as well. 

"I also have somewhere to be," he admitted, a little shocked that he'd lost track of time so easily. It seemed like they were just setting out from Skyhold a few minutes ago. He quickly summoned a portal spell and brought them both back to Skyhold so they could log out in a safe zone. 

"Will I see you online again some time?" Lavellan asked, once they were standing in the fortress courtyard again. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on his part, but Solas thought she sounded hopeful 

"Of course. Someone has to keep you from charging at every dragon on the map." Solas grinned at the memory of Lavellan's apparent single-mindedness every time they'd encountered a high dragon. 

"Hey, I could've taken him!" 

"Oh yes, a level 12 warrior against a level 38 high dragon. I suppose you were planning on fighting it from the inside of its mouth?" 

"Yeah, yeah…next time, Mr. Frostback. Your days are numbered." 

Solas chucked at the light-hearted airs Lavellan put on, and something warm and pleasant slotted into place in his chest when Lavellan joined in. The clock ticked over another minute. 

"I really must be going," Solas said. I could…send you a message the next time I'm on?" he added tentatively, aware that he was stalling. There was nothing he wanted less than to go to dinner now. He had a suspicion Dorian and Bull were going to try to play matchmaker again. He'd hoped they would give up after the utter disaster of their last attempt to set him up with someone. 

He still couldn't look at lemon cream pies without shuddering. 

"Lavellan?" he prompted, when he realized she hadn't responded right away. For some reason the delay drove a cold spike through the warmth in his chest. 

"I'd like that," she finally answered, banishing his fears in just three words. "See you around, Fen'Harel." 

The space around Lavellan glowed green as she logged out, leaving Solas alone to stare at the screen. 

It was the work of a few mouse clicks to toggle the notification settings on his friends list before logging out himself. 

Most of the names there were greyed out from inactivity; his old guild mates. Not one of them had logged in since that day over two years ago. 

It meant more than he cared to admit to see at least one name in bold white text.

* * *

Roiya practically skidded to a stop next to Cassandra. Her friend was hunched over a trio of beer bottles, one empty, one half-full, and the last untouched. It was still damp with the traces of condensation. 

"You are almost an hour late," Cassandra chastised her sternly. Few things got under Cassandra's skin more than people not being where they were supposed to be, when they were supposed to be there. 

Ironic, Roiya thought, given how often she'd been left to fend for herself because Cassandra was off killing an elite or a rarespawm or something or other when they'd been playing together. Then again, if Cassandra hadn't run off, she never would've met Fen'Harel… 

Ancestors, but he had a voice to die for. And she had, repeatedly. Only a _few_ times had been on purpose, just to hear that unfairly sexy chuckle of exasperation before he brought her character back from beyond the veil of digital death. 

Belatedly, she realized she hadn't offered Cassandra an explanation, and was instead standing there silently, probably with a dopey grin on her face, daydreaming about a stranger's voice. 

"I…kinda lost track of time playing World of Thedas?" Roiya shrugged. She did her best to look contrite, though she couldn't say she really felt it. Those few hours hanging out with Fen'Harel had been…pretty magical, if she was being honest with herself. Never mind that he was just a disembodied voice on the internet. 

Cassandra just gaped at her, and then shook her head in disbelief. "I suppose I am to blame then. I should have remembered how easily it is to get sucked in when you first start out." She sounded annoyed, but the slanted grin she gave Roiya said she wasn't serious. "Come on, we have a table already waiting."

As Roiya followed Cassandra through the sea of occupied tables, she realized they were headed towards a very familiar set of wide-set horns. 

"Cassandra…who's _we_?" she asked with a sinking feeling. 

"Oh, uh, Dorian and Iron Bull asked if they could join us. It's been so long since we got together. I didn't think you'd mind."

"I never mind seeing _them_ ," Roiya said pointedly. It was who they tended to bring _with_ them that was the problem. Roiya sighed heavily, already resigning herself to a night of awkward small talk with another one of Dorian and Bull's coincidentally single friends.

Sure enough, as they circled around the busy floor to reach the table, Roiya could see a third man, a tallish pale-skinned elf, was sitting across from Bull. He seemed to be deep in conversation with Dorian about something, his brow furrowed and making elegant gestures with one hand. She vaguely recognized the lines of a rune being traced in the air. 

Well, she'd give them one thing: even at a distance he was certainly better looking than the last guy, even if he _was_ completely and totally bald. She bit her lip at the way light bounced off the smooth, slightly shiny curve of his bare head. 

"Don't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh," she chanted under her breath as she and Cassandra closed the last few feet to the table. If someone was going to make a bad first impression, it was _not_ going to be her. If only to spare her friends the embarrassment. 

The man looked up when they arrived, his expression smoothing out into the polite expectation of a stranger about to meet mutual friends. Roiya updated her initial assessment. This friend of theirs was actually _very_ handsome. The bald thing was even kind of working for him. 

"There you are! Cassandra was about to send out a search party," Bull rumbled, standing up to envelop her in a hug with his massive arms. 

"I know, I know. I got, uh, distracted by something at home, lost track of time." She ignored the snort Cassandra gave behind her back. 

Bull released her and took his seat again, throwing his arm around the back of Dorian's chair again. Roiya fought down the urge to roll her eyes. Cassandra had taken the chair next to Bull, conveniently leaving her to sit next to the bald-yet-surprising-attractive stranger.

"Roiya, this is Solas. Solas, this is—

"Roiya Lavellan, at your service," Roiya cut in, before Dorian could finish. She knew her friends meant well, but it got old after a while, having other people introduce her with the cloying, leading tone that implied how hopelessly single she was without actually saying it. "Sorry we kept you waiting," she apologized, and stuck out her hand to shake. 

"Lavellan?" Solas breathed, and Roiya felt a jolt at the sound of her name, spoken like a question. It was clearer, richer without the interference of a dying headset…but she _knew_ that voice.

She'd said goodbye to it just twenty minutes ago.

For his part, Solas looked a bit like a halla caught in headlights. Would he play it off? Pretend they hadn't spent the last three hours getting to know each other? Or… "It's an old Dalish clan name," she said, watching intently for his reaction. 

"I'm aware of the history," Solas replied, and—yes, there it was. A soft, secret smile played at the corners of his mouth as he took her hand. "Dorian and Bull have told me so much about you, it feels as though we've already met." His brow arched meaningfully, and Roiya bit the inside of her lip to keep from grinning openly. "But in the interest of proper introductions…I'm Solas. Solas Harel."

"Pleasure to meet you, Solas," she said, letting a polite smile show on her face, too. "So, how do you know these two goons?" 

"Occupational hazard." He gave another one of those little chuckles that made her pulse flutter for some reason. "I met Dorian a few years ago when he brought an Orlesian… artifact to my shop for appraisal."

It's a good thing Roiya hadn't taken a drink yet. It would've been hard to explain why she'd just sprayed everyone in the face with lukewarm beer. 

"What sort of artifact?" she asked, feigning innocent curiosity. 

"Old family heirloom, nothing interesting to anyone outside of House Pavus," Dorian answered for him, a little too quickly. "Anyway, I'm famished, can we please order before I waste away completely?" 

Roiya sat back in her chair as Dorian flagged down a waiter, taking a sip of her drink—ugh, just as lukewarm as she'd expected—and studied Solas closer over the curve of the bottle. He had strong, almost noble features, and the fact that he didn't have a single hair on his head aside from his dark eyebrows was mattering less and less by the second. 

Three hours shouldn't be enough time to feel like she'd known someone forever. And yet she did. Roiya found herself wishing they could just leave Cassandra and Bull and Dorian behind, just the two of them. Pick up the thread they'd left hanging back in the game. The thought of sitting through dinner and who knew how many rounds of drinks, _pretending_ to make awkward small talk like they were complete strangers… Roiya drowned her sighs in another swallow of barely palatable beer. 

His eyes met hers suddenly. Deep forest green and full of unspoken intent. She wasn't embarrassed to have been caught staring, and he didn't seem to mind. She had a pretty good feeling they were both thinking the same thing. 

It was going to be a long night. 

* * *

Solas lost track of how many times he started to say something to Roiya that would've given up that they weren't actually meeting for the first time. 

It was obvious she'd modeled her WoT character after herself; dark bronze skin, darker brown hair, it was like Lavellan had stepped out of the game and into his real life, right down to the green tattoo over her left eye. And in a way, he supposed she had. 

The Dalish markings gave him pause. He hadn't pegged her for a traditionalist, but there were plenty of Dalish who still carried on the old practices, including vallaslin tattoos, without attaching any deeper meaning or expectation to it. 

A person was more than just their face, Solas reminded himself, and focused on the fact that he'd been looking forward to speaking with Lavellan again, hopefully soon. This was certainly a lot sooner than he'd imagined, and a good deal more _real_ than chatting with a functional stranger in between slaying dragons and darkspawn. 

At first, it was fun, playing the roles set up by their mutual friends. Pretending not to know each other, all the while talking in circles, sneaking in cleverly oblique references that went unnoticed. That Roiya was able to match him at every turn only made it harder to maintain the pretense. But try as he might, he couldn't think of a single believable excuse that would allow both of them to leave—ostensibly together—without having to explain themselves. 

In the end, he didn't have to.

"Be right back," Roiya said, pushing back her chair and disappearing. It took Solas a moment to realize she'd barely spoken loud enough to be heard over the nose of the bar, and that only he'd noticed her leave. 

Well, almost nobody. Iron Bull caught his eye across the table, and he gave a subtle waggle of his scarred brow. Solas took a drink purely on reflex, using it as an excuse to break eye contact without making it look like he was running away. Not that it would matter. Iron Bull always saw more than anyone wanted him too. 

Solas's phone buzzed in his pocket a minute later. He stared dumbly at the screen, not sure what to make of the messages waiting for him. 

_up for another adventure, fenharel?_

_bull gave me your number_

_it's roiya btw, in case that wasn't obvious_

Solas risked a glance across the table, and found Iron Bull taking a long swig from his pint. Too long. His horns were pointed in the direction Roiya had gone. 

Subtle, Solas thought wryly.

It still took him a few minutes more to summon the courage to stand up and walk away from the table, under the guise of needing the men's room. Not unreasonable, given the amount of liquid sloshing around in his belly—along with a significant quantity of butterflies—and he did end up slipping inside to relieve himself before making his escape. 

The night air was frigid after the collective bubble of body heat inside the bar. Solas shoved down the sleeves he'd rolled up, shivering despite the alcohol still warming his veins. There were a few clumps of people outside, smokers and people brave enough to use the outdoor seating despite the chill, but Roiya was nowhere to be seen. He was just starting to wonder if he'd made a fool of himself when someone tapped him on the shoulder. 

Solas turned around…and there she was. 

"Hey," was all Roiya said, but that single word was laden with so much relief that Solas felt himself relax. It seemed he wasn't the only nervous one. "This isn't too weird, is it? I know technically we just met, but…"

"No, I—I appreciate the initiative. Truly," he said in a rush. "Another hour and I likely would've attempted something similar. Though I'm not certain it would've been quite so successful." 

"Well, I did have help," Roiya grinned slyly, shaking in her hand. "So, uh…getting us out of there was basically my whole plan. Do you wanna go someplace else?" 

_Someplace else_. Did that mean another bar? Or...or was that an invitation to go back to her place? Would she be offended if he turned her down? Would he even say no, if that's what she meant? He wasn't in the habit of falling into bed on a first date, but he couldn't say the idea of getting to know Roiya more intimately didn't appeal to him… 

Solas was suddenly, horribly aware of how out of practice he was at this. 

Something must have shown on his face, because Roiya touched his arm lightly, drawing his attention back to her. She smiled up at him, golden brown skin cast in blue shadows by the neon of the bar signs, expression soft and kind and beautiful and for the life of him Solas couldn't have said what possessed him to lean down and kiss her. 

Her lips were cool and smooth, chilled by the wind, and tasted faintly of the bitter Fereldan beer she'd been drinking. Solas followed the taste with his tongue unconsciously, and then they were kissing open-mouthed and all semblance of restraint flew from Solas's mind. All he knew was the heat of a body pressed against him, the arms around his neck and her waist. 

Neither came up for air for a while. 

"Now who's taking the initiative," Roiya said breathlessly, when they parted some time later. Puffs of fog mingled in the tiny gap between their mouths. 

"Apologies, I—" Solas faltered, breathing just heavily. He didn't actually know what he was apologizing for, or why. The kiss clearly hadn't been unwelcome. Perhaps he wasn't so terribly out of practice after all. "Your place or mine?" he asked, throwing caution to the wind. 

Roiya gave him a wolfish grin in response, and tugged him away from the bar.

**Author's Note:**

> ...and then they killed that dragon in the Hinterlands and they lived happily ever after.
> 
> Roiya Lavellen is also the Inquisitor in [The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1155020), a (wip) canon-divergent AU of Inquisition. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! <3


End file.
